2012 Republican Candidates and Twitter

According to Politico, Newt Gingrich is 2012 Republican candidate to watch on Twitter


As Emily Schultheis noted yesterday, Gingrich who has been using the social media service since Februrary 2009, is leading the pack of Republican contenders. From her piece: 


"Gingrich has a whopping 1.3 million followers on the popular social media site. His three closest Twitter rivals from the 2012 GOP presidential field, former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney and Reps. Ron Paul and Michele Bachmann, all hover around 60,000 followers apiece. Even Twitter enthusiast Sarah Palin, who hasn’t indicated whether she’ll run, has less than half the followers Gingrich does."

Of course, Schultheis also commends Gingrich for his willingness to be entertaining with his tweets and notes a recent online conversation between Gingrich and Rainn Wilson, or Dwight Schrute of The Office. Rainn Wilson suggested a Newt/Schrute campaign and the former Speaker of the House responded with his own comic quip.



At the same time, Gingrich has been known to get himself in trouble with his tweets -- the most notable incident was in May 2009 when he called then Supreme Court nominee Sotamayor a "racist." Gingrich later apologized for the problematic tweet.


Look for other 2012 GOP candidates to pay greater attention to their Twitter feed as the election cycle unfolds.



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